BASEBALL; After 10 Innings of Misfires, Mets Win in 11th

Dave Magadan turned on Dave Righetti's two-out, 11th-inning fastball and already in his mind was turning back to the dugout. The first baseman for the Mets had hit safely in only 3 of his previous 32 times at bat, and he had not made great contact on the 1-0 pitch from Righetti. Worst of all, Magadan looked up as he broke from the box to see the baseball bounce high and Will Clark, arguably the finest fielding first baseman in baseball, pounce to his right.

"I was convinced the ball would be caught," said Magadan.

Today, though, was clearly not one for convictions. The Mets, failing to score almost every time they were convinced they would or should, had stranded 15 men on base through 10 innings while going 1 for 11 with men in scoring position. The Giants, after defeats in 8 of their last 10 games, had wasted a 2-1 lead and had the intimidating heart of their lineup go a combined 2 for 15 against four different pitchers for the Mets.

And so it was no great surprise that Magadan's conviction didn't hold, and that Clark's glove didn't come up with the baseball. Magadan's grounder got through the right side of the infield to score Tom Herr. Then, Chris Donnels snaked a single along the ground to center for another run. And three outs later, the Mets slinked out of Candlestick Park with a 4-2 triumph.

"We tried so hard to make a run happen," said Manager Bud Harrelson, whose team had come up empty on the scoreboard after filling the bases in both the eighth and ninth innings. "We had all those people moving. Sometimes you try too hard for a run. And then you get one without even trying."

Magadan, of course, had a different perspective on the effort involved in the 11th-inning drama. The first baseman, who had hit .328 last season, had begun the afternoon with a .232 average and his vacillating confidence at the plate once more in shambles.

"I was in a fog again," Magadan said of his previous four futile trips to the plate. "All season, I have felt good one day and absolutely awful the next." At His Lowest in 9th

His depression and sense of dislocation were at their most acute after his appearance against Righetti in the ninth. With the bases loaded, Magadan could do nothing more than tap back to the mound for the final out.

"I'm ahead in the count, and he throws me a cut fastball down and away," said Magadan. "It was a pitcher's pitch. But I swung."

Unaccountably, Magadan said, his mood when he came to the plate in the 11th had swung once more.

"I had a feeling during that at-bat that I haven't had all year," said Magadan. "I was actually anxious to hit."

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"It was a fastball designed to go in," said Righetti. "It didn't go in far enough."

After a 7-0 whitewash Friday night, the Mets recovered to take two straight.

"We take two of three at each stop," said John Franco, who gained the triumph with his two innings of scoreless relief, "and that'll be doing something."

Frank Viola said he didn't have anything to complain about with his seven innings today. Having operated without his sharpest repertory, he was satisfied with having left the afternoon with the score 2-2.

"When you don't have any idea of where your pitches are going for most of the day," said Viola, "the feeling you have leaving with your guys still in it can be even sweeter than a win."

His feelings, though, were distinctly mixed upon taking a seat in the clubhouse only to watch Mets take regular but permanent perches on the bases.

"It was incredible the number of guys we stranded," said Viola. "We could have won it on three or four occasions. But, hey, we dug in and continued to plug away."

And ultimately Magadan didn't have to turn away from that grounder. It luckily went through and the Mets cheerfully trudged on to San Diego a half-game back of the Pirates.

INSIDE PITCH

VINCE COLEMAN, ejected from the game for arguing a third-strike call in the third by MIKE WINTERS, laced into the quality of the weekend's umpiring and strongly implied that he was treated less generously at the plate than other players. "I never get close calls," said the Mets' center fielder, who had earned a mandatory $100 fine Saturday for firing his helmet after a called third strike by JOE WEST . "I have a reputation for complaining and it obviously precedes me. I have nothing against umpires, and I hope they have nothing against me. But if they can take the bat out of my hands they will. They do." . . . GREGG JEFFERIES will be activated Monday after 15 days sidelined with a rib-cage muscle pull. KEVIN ELSTER, out all week with a strained groin, is expected to start against the Padres at shortstop.

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A version of this article appears in print on May 13, 1991, on Page C00001 of the National edition with the headline: BASEBALL; After 10 Innings of Misfires, Mets Win in 11th. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe